Hi all,
If you're planning on attending the International Association for Landscape Ecology's World Congress in 2019 (Milano, Italy, early July 2019), consider proposing a presentation in our special session on the effects of snowloss on ecosystem health and functioning. Abstracts are open now. Title: Disappearing snow and altered ecosystems: Observations, experiments, and outcomes Synopsis: Winter snow is a critical component of ecosystem health. It insulates the soil, provides protection from winds, and results in slow water release over the spring melt period. However, climate continues to change rapidly. Snowpack depth, density, and duration are sensitive to small variations in temperature even apart from changes in overall precipitation amounts or timing. Declines in winter precipitation in some areas result in lower snow packs. In others, the warming climate is causing rapid declines in snowpack by causing shifts from snow to rain winter precipitation regimes. The end result is increasing organism exposure to novel winter conditions. Many ecosystems are located near the 0 degree winter temperature isotherm and vulnerable to this aspect of global change; others are likely to experience shorter snow seasons, resulting in changes in the fall or spring seasons. As a result, some species are likely to decline while others may benefit from the new conditions. In any case, ecosystem change is likely. The transition from winter snow to low/no snow conditions is a threshold-like phenomena, resulting from only slight warming or declines in precipitation. Yet there are dramatic changes when that threshold is crossed. Soils are not insulated from atmospheric temperature variation, resulting in potential freezing events which alter nutrient availability, damage roots, and can cause widespread mortality. Root damage may lead to increased drought vulnerability. Aboveground communities are exposed to desiccating winds in addition, which can drive dieback or mortality. Vulnerable budding tissue may freeze, resulting in productivity declines over broad areas. These observations are becoming more and more common in a variety of ecosystems. Full session description here: http://www.iale2019.unimib.it/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2018/11/SYMP01.pdf Abstracts can be submitted now. They are due Jan. 25th, 2019. Make sure you select this session, which is SYMP01. http://www.iale2019.unimib.it/program/abstracts-submission/ Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. The symposium casts a wide net with the intention of looking for future impacts in places not currently impacted by snow loss - in other words, generalities. The intention is crafting some sort of synthesis/review paper as a result of this symposium. Brian Brian Buma, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Integrative Biology CU Denver www.brianbuma.com
